Snowden In The Studio Vid

Here's another little clip I made. I'm getting quite proficient in iMovie now. This is by no means footage of us recording our next album. We've just been trying out some stuff in different studios around town to see if anything clicks. This clip is from a couple different studios. We cut the same track at both places to see what the differences would be, but have since tweaked the song beyond recognition of the original. Perhaps it will end up as a b-side one day or something. Anyway, this is mostly just footage of us goofing off as usual. Enjoy.

Thanks + Cao Fang | In Summer

Thanks to everyone who came out to The Earl Sunday for the breast cancer benefit, and to all the bands and everyone involved. It was a great turn out for a rainy Sunday night and we raised a bunch of money for a good cause. Thanks again.

Completely unrelated... I never thought a GE commercial would cause me to become obsessed with a song, but after seeing the ad a couple times during the Olympics I am now completely hooked by this tune. It's called "In Summer" by Cao Fang, a Chinese singer/songwriter. The whole song is only one minute and ten seconds long, but the melody has permanently lodged itself into my head and will not let go. It's like Cat Power, Iron & Wine, Kings of Convenience, Nick Drake and Feist all rolled into one and re-interperted by this Chinese girl. I don't know much about her, but apparently her nickname is Icy. Um, ok. Here's the rough English translation and mp3.

MP3: Cao Fang - In Summer

Listen to the children playing
Listen to the children playing
Listen to the children play in the summer
I've got something I should say,
but it won't come out my way
Summer's slipping away,
let me stay in your heart today

Snowden @ Titty-Titty Bang Bang

We've added a last minute show this weekend to help out some friends raising money to help fight breast cancer. I think this is a cause we can all get behind. If you're in ATL come out and help support the cause. We know this is sorta last minute, so if you could repost to help get the word out that'd be nice of you. Here's the info...

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UPDATE: A secret 5th band was just added. If you know Atlanta bands, you will know this one. We also have over 50 items in the raffle!!!

Please come out and support Team "Give 'em Hell, Maxwell" raise money for the Atlanta 2 Day Breast Cancer Walk at the Earl on August 24, 2008.

Doors are at 7:00.

$10 Cover. Raffle Tickets $5/each or 5 tickets for $20.

4 BANDS: The Danny Family, Valentina, The Preakness and the Bandettes (and now Snowden too)

HUGE RAFFLE including gift certificates from Loca Luna, Quattro, Clothing Warehouse, Front Page News, Apres Diem, Criminal Records, Aurora Coffee, EAYC, Trinity Gym, Urban Body Fitness, Five Roses Tattoo, Salon and Spa packages and MUCH MUCH MORE!
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Snowden Tour Randomness (Summer '08)

I finally got around to editing down some of the video clips I shot on our last tour. I didn't have as much footage to work with as last time, but still managed to throw together a decent little vid. For the music I used some snippets of unreleased Snowden demos that may or may not see the light of day at some point. Enjoy.

Snowden @ Monolith Festival

We just added a show at the Monolith Festival at Red Rocks in Colorado. It's a cool festival with a really impressive lineup. If you happen to be going we'll be playing the New Belgium Stage at 2:45pm on Sunday Sept. 14. That day alone has an impressive lineup with TV On The Radio, Justice and many others. View the lineup here.

Believe The Hype

I was lucky enough to see it on IMAX this weekend. Luckier than these folks.

AudioSurfing With Snowden

I just stumbled across this on YouTube. Funny.



AudioSurf is a music-adapting puzzle racer where you use your own music to create your own experience. The shape, the speed, and the mood of each ride is determined by the song you choose.

The Walkmen | You & Me

For the past week or so I've been listening to the new Walkmen album that recently leaked on repeat. It's one of the best records to come out this year, in my opinion. They seem to have taken all the elements I love about the band and magnified them with brilliant studio production and great songwriting. I've always loved the reverb drenched guitar tones they get and on this record the guitars really stand out. Hamilton Leithauser's vocal delivery is top notch as well and gives the songs an emotional urgency that most vocalists lack. All around this record is just a breath of fresh air in the current indie music landscape.

Speaking of which, this current trend of people playing late 80's early 90's hardcore/noise rock and somehow being considered 'fresh' or 'relevant' is really starting to wear thin. Loud distorted guitar riffs and screaming unintelligible lyrics into a microphone while flailing about onstage just isn't cutting it for me. I will admit that I like the No Age record and what they're doing, but some of the other bands clumped into that scene just seem like a joke, or some sort of passing fad. There's only so far you can grow musically in that vein. The Walkmen, on the other hand, are writing timeless songs that seem to be imprinted with a stamp of authenticity that will last far past the short shelf life of whatever trend or fad is considered cool or hip at the moment. Ok, sorry for ranting. Bottom line, this new Walkmen record is a much welcomed return to form and definitely worth checking out.

MP3: The Walkmen - In The New Year

MP3: The Walkmen - On The Water

Something To Do

Thanks Jeff Bridges

Corndogs + SwitchBurn Videos

I'm pretty sure all of Atlanta knows the annual Corndogorama festival is this weekend at Lenny's. If for some reason you're local and have never been, you're missing out on quite a spectacle. We're scheduled to play around 9:45pm on Saturday and close out the outdoor stage. Hopefully the rain will hold off. Check out the full schedule HERE.

In other Snowden news, the wonderful folks at switchburn.com have posted some videos of us performing at Stubb's BBQ in Austin last month. If you've never checked out this website you really should. They film bands performing at various venues around Austin and archive them on their site. What's cool is that they post all the videos in a multi-camera angle format and the quality is great. They already have quite an extensive archive of great bands including Black Lips, Dark Meat, Dead Confederate, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, The Black Angels and many many more. Definitely worth checking out. I was sorta hoping they would feature a couple of our newer songs so people could get a taste of the new stuff, but they went with the better known cuts from Anti-Anti. No complaints here though. The vids are cool and we're happy they took the time to film us and post it. Click on the song names to watch the videos.

BLACK EYES | BETWEEN THE RENT AND ME | LIKE BULLETS | ANTI-ANTI

Snowden @ AthFest This Friday (40 Watt)

Images From The Tour

We've been back for a little over a week now. After bouncing all over the country for a few weeks everything just seems like a big blurry fading memory once you get back home and settle back into your daily routine. Here are a bunch of random photos I took throughout the tour. I have some video footage too. I'll get around to editing some of that stuff one day soon. I've mentioned it before but I'll say it again... Colour Revolt are an amazing band. Watching them play every night never got old. If you're in Atlanta they're playing a show here this Thursday (6/12) at Vinyl with Gringo Star. I highly recommend checking them out. Here's a mp3 of what became my favorite song to watch them play each night. There's a lyric towards the end that floors me every time I hear it...

"cause brother you are my weakness

i'll listen and learn from your kindness
your wisdom is very thoughtless
but your window is worth looking out from"

MP3: Colour Revolt - Moses of the South

Varsity Theater. Minneapolis, MN.

A reflection of our van.

My daily view from the van.

Jordan and I enjoy sushi in Toronto.

Chandler & Jordan wait for a storm after a show in Oklahoma City.

It's close, according to Advantage Doppler 3D.

Still waiting.

Chandler controls the Global Positioning System.

In Dallas we stop at the appropriately named Dallas Lake.

Surprisingly, it wasn't until Austin that Jordan suffered a real sunburn.

Corinne reads a book recommended by Jimmy from Colour Revolt.

Chandler learns Sammy Davis Jr. was a member of the Church of Satan.

Jordan is quite strange.

Sean Kirkpatrick. This kind man let me use his amplifier after mine decided to die.

Our favorite place to play in Austin. They make sure we eat well.

A late night (veggie) dog in Austin.

Shane MacGowan napping backstage.

Represent.

Loading out/in

Len & Patrick soundchecking in Houston.

Andrew (aka Petey). Merch guy (aka drinking buddy).

Elvis.

Backstage in New Orleans. Final show of the tour.

Wine Tasting + Water Falls in Finger Lakes

On our way to a show in Buffalo Jordan made a split second decision to pull off the interstate and drive towards an area in the upstate New York countryside known as Finger Lakes. It's an area with a bunch of lakes, hills, mountains, waterfalls and a surprisingly large number of wineries scattered throughout as well. We had some time to kill and decided to stop off at a winery to sample some of the goods and then stop by a nearby waterfall for a bit before we returned to our normal tour route.

This seemed like a reasonable price.

Cobblestone Farm Winery

Wine snobs... "hmm, that one's very earthy"

We talked this guy into taking us in the back room with all the barrels and concocting our own personalized bottle of wine in exchange for a bunch of Snowden merch.

We watch closely to make sure his measurements are correct.

Done. Decorated with a beautiful Snowden sticker. One of a kind.

We drive a few miles down to one of the falls.

The beauty. The grandeur.

Back to the van. Jordan leads us. Blindly.

Update From The Road

So, finding time to blog while on tour isn't as easy as I thought it would be. We've pretty much been in constant motion from the get go. Right now I'm in a cafe in Albany, NY. We have an off day and stopped off here on our way to Buffalo. The tour has been going really well. Colour Revolt is an amazing band live and really nice people to hang around with before the shows. I highly recommend anyone reading this to check them out if they ever come through your town.

We just got done spending a few days hanging around New York. Our show at Mercury Lounge on Thursday night was sold out to the point that the fire marshal showed up and almost shut the whole thing down before we got to play. They stopped letting people in at one point, even people who had already purchased tickets or friends of ours that were on the list. Eventually they let some more people in before we played but I'm not sure how they're sorting out the people who were denied entry. Contact Mercury Lounge if you're one of those people. Sorry about that. Apparently that was the first time the fire marshal ever showed up to a show at that venue before. Read more about it here.

Here are some random pics...